Essay, Research Paper

Brian Green

Mrs. Johnson

English III-4

9 January 2000

The Beginning of the Modern Olympic Games

From the earliest that historiographers can follow back which was about since the beginning of clip, people have been seting on and observing some type of a festival. The festivals held in the pes hills of Cyllene and Erymanthus at Olympia were considered to be spiritual and athletic. Some historiographers believe that in the beginning of clip, two Gods, Zeus and Kronos, the most powerful Gods of all, battled for the Earth and the games and spiritual jubilations held later were in memorialization of the triumph of Zeus.

In the clip of approximately 776 B.C. there was a great pes race in a hayfield beside a river named Alpheaus. The race was between two truly fast sprinters. The race besides was believed to be merely about 30 seconds long. It was about six hundred and 30 pess long or about what we know as the two hundred yard elan. This race started the competitions of the Olympic Games. The victor of the race would be crowned with a garland of olive foliages, which was considered so, as the best Crown a victor could perchance have.

There was a great sprinter in the clip of approximately 776 B.C. that had won a great pes race. His name was Coroebus. Since the race was won by Coroebus he was considered to be the Greatest jock at that clip in history. It is believed that Coroebus was merely a cook from the nearby Greek metropolis of Elis. ( Grolier Inc. 16 )

In the yearss of Ancient Greece, the Olympic Games were held every four old ages. It is believed that so, the greatest jock was the adult male that could throw the discuss the farthest. The discuss is a round object that one holds in the thenar of his manus and with the tips of his fingers and he throws it every bit far as he can without stepping exterior of a small circle.

Each one of the Olympic Games had specific regulations and ordinances that the jocks had to follow. All of the jocks had to curse that they had gone through a vigorous 10 month developing plan before traveling to vie against any other rival in the Olympics. This was necessary for every event. ( Grolier Inc. 15 )

In the ancient yearss, the rivals that competed had a comparatively big bowl compared to the 1s in today & # 8217 ; s universe of sports. The Olympic bowl in Olympia could keep approximately 45,000 to 50,000 witnesss at one clip. The field inside the bowl was merely approximately two hundred and thirty four paces long and 30 five paces broad. ( Kieran 14-16 )

All of the evidences in Olympia were really sacred and cherished evidences. Noone under weaponries could come in Olympia because of the sacredness of the evidences. The figure of people that really attended the Olympic Games is unknown. The Games to the Greeks were considered to be the most of import thing to make or to see. The word & # 8220 ; bowl & # 8221 ; was derived from & # 8220 ; one stade & # 8221 ; which came from the great pes race that was about six hundred and 30 pess long. ( Grolier Inc. 16 )

The four-year period between each Olympiad is believed to hold started in approximately three hundred B.C.

A really barbarous and unusual event in the Olympics was called the pancration. This was a combination of wrestle and pugilism. The victor was crowned when the also-ran was dead, unconscious, or raised his manus in licking. In one instance, two work forces were contending and one killed the other. The battle was so barbarous that the jock that was killed was crowned as the victor.

The Olympic Games were get downing

to worsen in about the twelvemonth sixty seven A.D. In three hundred 90 three A.D. , the Roman Emperor, Theodosis, was a convert to Christianity. He considered the games heathen and ordered them to be abolished. He besides said that the Games had become a “public nuisance” . ( Grolier Inc. 25 )

All of the temple of Zeus and Hera were torn down. Huge temblors and highly big inundations ruined the site and finally Olympia was buried. It would stay inhumed for centuries after century until 1875.

There was a adult male that had played a truly large function in resuscitating the Olympic Games. His name was Baron Pierre de Coubertin. The Baron was born in Paris, France on January 1, 1862. He had the thought of resuscitating the antediluvian Olympic Games on a global footing. He had decided that instruction and sports might travel hand-in-hand toward a better international apprehension. He besides helped to establish the A.S.U. , Athletic Sports Union. This sought to increase physical instruction in Gallic schools and universities. He was considered to be the drive force behind the Olympic Games ; he revived it and kept it traveling. Though Olympia was out of the inquiry, the people forming the Olympics wanted to resuscitate it on the Grecian dirt ; and Athens was the perfect topographic point. The Baron died on September 2, 1937.

The people that must cover with the jobs of running and forming the Games is the International Olympic Committee. This commission was created by the Congress in Paris on June 23, 1894. It was created to be the & # 8220 ; concluding authorization on all inquiries refering the Olympic motion & # 8221 ; . ( Grolier Inc. 29 )

The first Modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece in the twelvemonth of 1896. All of the squads in Athens of 1896 were: Greece, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. Greece had the largest figure of witnesss and rivals, since that the games were held on its ain dirt. The witnesss that watched the endurance contest was about one hundred 1000. This is a batch sing Athens has a entire population of about one hundred and thirty five 1000. The sum of jocks in the 1896 Games was three hundred and eleven. The winning state of the Games was the United States. Since the really beginning, adult females could non vie or even watch the Games. They would be put to decease in the ancient yearss if they were caught viing or watching. The first adult females to of all time be allowed to vie in the Olympics was in 1912.

The winter Olympics came to be in 1924 in Chamonix, France. Winter Olympics were excepted in the VIII Olympiad. It was suggested that the Baron did non like the thought of holding a separate meet for winter and summer events. He felt it would weaken the Olympic motion. The Baron was incorrect. ( Grolier Inc. 85 )

The first Olympics to be held in the United States was in 1904 at St. Louis, Missouri. For the first clip the United States had a existent squad, selected by an American Olympic Committee, headed by President, Theodore Roosevelt of 1906.

One ground for the rise in competition was because people were traveling to the United States and larning their manner of training so traveling back into their fatherland and training the & # 8220 ; American Way & # 8221 ; . ( Kieran 72 )

The United States easy took the victorious place of the 1896, 1900, 1904, and 1908 Olympic Games. By 1912, the Olympics were well-known throughout the universe and other states were acquiring involved. The United States will likely ever be a rival in anything that is competitory throughout the universe. ( Kieran 20-62 )